Desire
by David Shigure
Summary: The girls of Shuffle! and Rin Tsuchimi have had their stories. But what about Itsuki? Did he ever find the love that he was looking for? Or was it right under his nose, this whole time?
1. You Never Knew

"Desire"

Chapter 1: You Never Knew

I hate clocks. I absolutely loathe the things.  
Especially now as I sit in my World History class, staring at one above the blackboard, begging it to go faster. But as usual, the clock taunts me even more and makes time go even slower.

I look around the class, and I can tell I'm not the only one cursing at the clock. Itsuki Midoriba, the resident pervert and strangely enough, somebody who I call a friend is also glaring at the clock. I can only wonder at what obscenities he's throwing at it.

I look past Itsuki at my other good friend in the class, Rin Tsuchimi. He's staring at the clock, but with a faraway expression in his eyes. God knows what's going through his head nowadays, this past year has been extremely hard for him. Poor guy.

I turn away from Rin and look at the girls in the class. Lisianthus Eustoma, better known as Sia, was happily snoozing away, hidden behind her World History textbook. I've got to give the girl credit, it takes a lot of guts to even consider falling asleep in our teacher's lessons.

Miss Benibara does have a bit of a short fuse, but you're only dousing that fuse in aviation fuel if she catches you sleeping. Rin can attest to that.

On the other hand though, Kaede Fuyou and Nerine Forbesii were normally the attentive ones out of our circle of friends. The Human and Demon girl were the clever ones of the group and usually paid attention in class. However, boredom must have got the better of them, because Kaede was leaning on her hands, sucking the end of a pencil, and Nerine was leaning on her arms, her eyes unfocused.

Taking a leaf out of Nerine's book, I crossed my arms on the table and leant my chin on them, staring up at the abusing clock, sorely wishing I could through something at it. Slow days like this always drove me crazy. But I'd take a day like this over an exam week day any time. I hate exam week.

"We are now in a period of time where many of the mysteries of life will soon be unravelled." Our teacher droned on with her lecture, hopefully unaware that none of us were actually paying attention.

"The three worlds are collaborating together, using magic and science to aid them with their research. However, this would not have been possible a year ago, when the Gateways were still locked to us. As many of you are aware, the Opening of the Gateways is a big part of one of the topics covered on your exam, so unless you take this in, you're gonna fail."

I notice a figure looming over my desk. Slowly raising my head, I can already tell Miss Benibara hasn't got many words of sympathy for me.

"Is my class boring you Mayumi?" The teacher put on a sweet, innocent smile. My brain speeds up a gear as panic grips my body.

"No, not at all Miss."

I can see Itsuki grinning at me from the corner of my eye. I'll give him something to laugh about later, so long as I survive this encounter first.

"Well that's good to hear. For a moment there, I was beginning to think that you had your mind on other things than my lesson."

Her innocent smile was slowly growing bigger. Judgment was about to fall, and I could already feel the words 'Ten page report' before she had even said them.  
Whether it was by pure luck or that the clock decided to be nice to me, the bell started ringing, signaling that the lesson was over and it was time to go for lunch. I mentally cheered, trying not to let any emotion flash onto my face.

"You lucked out Mayumi. Next time I won't go so easy on you."

The teacher began walking back to her desk. I let out a sigh of relief as I collapsed onto my desk. I don't think I could have dealt with a ten page report on the Opening of the Gates Phenomenon. I wouldn't even know where to start...

"She almost had you there Mayumi."

The sound of that arrogant jerk was wandering towards me. I had to restrain myself from getting up and yelling at him.

"Shut up, Itsuki." I mumbled into my arms.

"Now that's not very nice. I only came over to give you some sympathy."

"It's not sympathy I need right now. I need a warm bath, a night filled with hot food and more importantly, I need to get myself a guy."

I sounded depressed even to me. World History might actually be driving me suicidal...

"Well, if that's all you need, I can provide you with all three." I suddenly sense that Itsuki's got something else in mind. But at times like these, it's usually his cue to make a crack at my breast size. I wait patiently, preparing to beat him within an inch of his life.

But it never came.

"What's the catch?" I look up at him, curiously.

I'm betting my green striped panties that whatever he's up to isn't going to be appropriate for my level of innocence.

I can see the look in his eyes.

I might actually be wrong this time...

"No catch Mayumi" He puts on an innocent look. "I just thought maybe we could hang out together? You know, wander around Sunlight Way? Maybe stop for a parfait at Flora?"

Is he asking me out?

I think about it for a moment.  
Nah, Itsuki wouldn't ask me out. At least not properly anyway. Maybe all he really does want to do is hang out.

"Alright then." I nod at him. Smiling happily, he nods back.

"Great, I'll see you after school then."

All I can do is watch, my mouth slightly open, as he wanders over to Rin.  
Has something happened to him?

^^^

I'm feeling pretty stupid right about now. It hasn't even been an hour after I asked Mayumi if she wanted to hang out. But, as luck would have it, it decided to rain on me.

It could have rained any other day. But no...  
It had to be today.

Stupid weather. Stupid rainy season. Stupid Itsuki for not remembering the forecast this morning.  
Thank god I actually remembered my umbrella this time.

It's the last lesson of the day.  
Magical Studies.

This lesson would be so much more fun if I could actually use magic. I do well in the tests and the theory they set us, but for the people in the class who aren't a God or a Demon, it feels as though we're an audience, watching how badly they screw up complex magic.

The rain lashing on the windows doesn't do much to help my dampened mood. I guess that means no Flora today either...  
Depression instantly sets in as I realize that today I would have to do without Asa or Kareha's frilly waitress costume.

"Itsuki!!"

Miss Benibara's slim figure is creating a towering silhouette over my desk. I didn't even realise I wasn't paying any attention. Just my luck.

"First it's Mayumi, now it's you. I swear, if I go home and find a stress wrinkle, I'm going to chase you both around the track field 'till you collapse."

Please don't find a stress wrinkle when you go home, Miss B. That'd be bad...

"Anyway..." She sighs, sounding almost as depressed as I feel. "Before you conked out on me, I asked you if you could tell me the basic structure of the process necessary to conjure a light-healing spell."

I could hear Sia squeal behind me as she thrust up her hand. Normally, she's not really an academic student. But there were two subjects which she excelled at.  
One was Home Economics. The other was Magical Studies.

Unfortunately for her though, I knew the answer.

"A light-healing spell requires the user to draw on energy from his or her chi, the central energy surrounding a life form. Some people call it spiritual energy. Some other people think it's energy directly related to the soul.  
Once you've drawn energy, you focus the energy into a small ball of light in the palm of your hand. The colour of this ball varies between species, and the individual. Gods tend to have pink, gold or magenta coloured light spheres. Demons usually have green, crimson, pale blue, or dark blue spheres.  
People who are a mix of the two, or partly human, can have a complete variety of colours, making them the most colourful of the bunch.  
Once your sphere has attained a particular colour, and is fully formed, you can either place it directly on, or hover it over a wound or some other injury, from which the magic will take effect."

Maybe I should of let Sia take that question after all. Now my brain hurts.

"Perfect Itsuki. There's hope for you yet." The teacher resumes with her lesson, explaining more advanced techniques that use light-healing as a basis form.

Twenty minutes later, the bell rang. The end of the day had finally come.  
Now the only problem was to figure out what to do with Mayumi...

As if on cue, I feel somebody prodding on my shoulder.

"Have you looked outside recently?" Mayumi points at the angry, dark clouds hovering outside the window.

I sigh in defeat and nod. "Yeah, I have. Sunlight Way ain't gonna have much sunlight today."

Mayumi smiles and nods. "Yeah, you're right." She turns and faces me, worry in her heterochromic eyes. "You wouldn't be able to help me out, would you?"

"What's the matter?"

She looks away from me for a second. "I...uh, forgot my umbrella at home. I didn't hear the forecaster this morning, so I had no idea this was going to happen..." She looks back at me.

"You wouldn't be able to walk home with me, would you?"

At some point, I noticed my heart was beating slightly faster than normal.

"You want me to walk you home?"

"Yeah. I mean, you've got your umbrella, don't you?"

I nod slowly. It's alright, we've walked home together plenty of times in the past. It's convenient, because we both live relatively close together.

"Okay then, I'll take you home Mayumi. You owe me one."

I stand up, getting ready to pack my bag, when I feel a pair of arms slip round my stomach.

"You're a lifesaver Itsuki! I was gonna get drenched." After a tight squeeze, the arms let go. "I'll get packed right away.  
And with that, Mayumi zoomed off to get her gear together.

"I've known her for five years and I still don't understand what runs around in her mind sometimes."

^^^

Ten minutes later, we both left Verbena Academy. The rain was hammering down on Itsuki's big, black umbrella.

He had an arm around my shoulder, whilst my arm was tucked around his torso, hugging him close. Because we were both sharing one umbrella, we had to be this close, or one of us was going to get wet.

We've done this plenty of times in the past. But today, it feels different. It feels, kinda nice.

I could feel the weight of my umbrella at the bottom of my bag. It's strange, but I think I'm glad I made up that story. I'm glad just to be walking alongside Itsuki.

If only he knew...

* * *

My first foray into the Shuffle! Fandom. Please R & R =]

Edit: Added seperators to distinguish between who was talking easier. I originally had these in, but fanfiction seems to remove them when I upload the files...


	2. Hesitation

"Desire"

Chapter 2: Hesitation

Sitting at home, on top of my bed, I took a look around my room.

Girl's rooms are supposed to be neat, somewhat tidy and look as though the occupier was indeed a girl and not some sort of lazy gorilla.  
From where I'm sitting, I can see a mismatch of brightly coloured socks strewn around my room. There's underwear on a pile at the end of my bed, and my alarm clock seems to be quite snug buried on top of the pile. Another reason I can add to the list of why I don't like clocks, because my one is a pervert.

After one last stretch to wake up my muscles, I slowly get out of bed. Wandering over to the mirror to check on the damage done to my hair after wrestling my duvet all night, I'm not too surprised to find a girl with tousled hair, wearing only a vest and white panties staring back at me with one red eye open, the blue one staying firmly shut.

Rubbing a hand through my hair, I yawn loudly, stepping over a minefield of dirty laundry and random, brightly coloured hair bobbles. Reaching for my bedroom door, my hand freezes before it can grab the handle.

I can't actually believe what I'm seeing.  
I think my whole body has just gone into shock.  
Maybe I'm still dreaming. That's the only way I can explain it.

What's happening shouldn't be happening.  
It's impossible, there's just no way...

I slowly watch, numb with shock, as blue sparks, like a whirlwind of electricity spins its way around my outstretched palm.  
Being a half-demon, and with a predominantly stronger human side, I shouldn't be able to do this.  
I watch as the electricity flowing around my now clenched fist begins to swirl, changing direction with just a thought from my mind.

I'm half-amazed. And half-worried.  
Something about this isn't good. I shouldn't be able to use magic like this. I shouldn't be able to use magic at all!

The electricity was growing, and its movements becoming more erratic. It began moving all over my body, crackling furiously. Something exploded inside me. A maelstrom of pain whirled around inside. It felt like somebody had plugged me into a wall socket.  
Screaming in pain, I fell against the door, clutching my head.

The blue sparks began targeting random places over my body. Wherever a spark landed, hurt like hell.  
I was literally being electrocuted by my own magic, and I had no idea how to stop it.

And something else was happening too. I could feel the energy draining from my body.  
The magic was slowly draining my energy.  
The corners of my vision began to darken. Leaning on my knees, my back was arched, my eyes open wide.

The last thing I remember seeing, before passing out on the floor, was my mother bursting into my room, taking one look at me and what was happening to me, fear etched into her expression. I'll never forget that face of pure panic she wore that day.

***

"I think she's waking up."

"What?"

"Somebody call a doctor, quick!"

"Wait! I want to see her!"

"I'm sorry sir, but you're going to have to leave."

"No! Mayumi!"

"The doctor is here, make some room!"

"Let me see her!"

"Let him stay. He's been here every day, he's been worried sick about this girl. And at the moment, we can't do anything until she's fully awake."

"But sir...! That's against..."

"I'm staying. Shut up and go do something useful with yourself."

Loud voices. That's all I can hear.  
They sound familiar. I think. Everything is so foggy, or far-away. It's hard to distinguish between anything any more.  
I feel like I've slept for a month. Every muscle, every nerve in my body either refuses to respond, or aches like hell.  
Maybe this is some sort of extreme hangover?

Mustering up as much effort as I can, I try opening an eye.  
All I can see is white. And maybe a few, faint colours moving around. Are they people?

Opening both my eyes now, blinking in an attempt to dispel the sleepiness, things begin to come into focus.  
I can see a doctor and a nurse. I'm in a hospital?  
On my right is Itsuki, looking extremely pissed off about something. Maybe that was his voice I heard earlier?

He notices that I'm awake, and immediately rushes next to me, and grasps my hand.

"Mayumi? You feeling okay?"

I can't even sit up properly. But even so, I nod ever so slightly. Even that took a hell of a lot of effort.  
Itsuki smiles. I can see shadows underneath his eyes. He looks exhausted.

"I-Itsuki...?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"W-why am I in hospital?"

Itsuki looks over at the doctor. The doctor nodded, and came around, standing behind Itsuki.  
He takes one look at me. I can see the uncertainty in his eyes. This is the point I begin to seriously worry.  
He clears his throat slowly.

"Mayumi. I don't really know how to say this. But you're slowly becoming a demon."

My head stops spinning for a moment.  
I'm sure I heard him right. He said... a demon, right?

"You are already aware that, due to the nature of your birth, you are already half-demon, and half-human.  
But recently, something has changed. The demonic blood that you possess inside you has begun to change.  
You are slowly losing your humanity."

A million and one questions hit me. But I don't have the energy. There's only one thing I can really ask him.

"W-Why?"

The doctor shakes his head. "I haven't the faintest idea. We don't know enough about magic and ailments like these, which also brings up another problem." He gives me a serious look. "We don't know how to treat it."

I can feel Itsuki's grip on my hand tighten. In the beginning, when the doctor started talking I was worried, I'll admit.  
Now, I was panicking.

"What's going to happen? Will, I survive?" I almost had trouble gulping that out.

The next move the doctor made was probably the worst he could have done. His eyes break away from mine, and instead, he looks away.  
"Mayumi, I'm going to be honest with you. We don't know. We have no idea what this could do to you."

He looks up at me once again. "At the most, there are only two probable outcomes we can gather from what we know already."  
Taking a deep breath, he began to talk again. "One, you'll become a fully-fledged demon. You will be able to use magic and otherwise, continue with your daily life. Or...  
Your body might not be able to handle the transformation of becoming a demon. And if that's the case, then you will probably die."

Shock. Just like when I was being electrocuted, that's all I could feel right now. But without the physical pain. Only, the emotional pain had left me completely speechless.

"There must be something we can do. We can't just sit and let this happen!"

I can hear Itsuki practically begging the doctor. But only vaguely.  
Thought's of my own impending doom were currently the only things preoccupying my head at the moment.

"Well, we can't do anything, Midoriba-san.  
If you want help with this situation, there are only two people that you can ask in this whole world who might be able to give you a hand with this."

I can hear Itsuki gasp. Maybe...?

"Forbesii & Eustoma!" Itsuki grasps my hand with both of his. "They must be able to help us! They're the King of Gods and Demons, they must know something!"  
He nods at me, confidence illuminating his eyes once again. "I'll go talk to them. They might come here and, they might be able to heal you Mayumi. Or at least, stop this transformation from going wrong." He lets go of my hands, and begins to make his way to the door.

But before he's completely out of my reach, I grab onto his sleeve.  
"Itsuki..."

Turning around to face me, all I can see is worry in his eyes. Worry, but determination as well.  
"What is it?"

"If I transform... into a full demon...  
Will it change anything?"

The look of surprise was almost comical looking. But due to the already sorrowful atmosphere, nobody was going to laugh.  
He looks at me seriously. "Why would it change anything, Mayumi? A demon, a human or even a mix of both. You're still Mayumi Thyme, and that's one thing that blood is never going to be able to change." Smiling softly, although with a sad look still in his eyes. "I'll be back soon."

And with that, he was gone.

"Itsuki..."

***

Here I am, standing outside the house of the King of the Demons.

It's hard to believe that me and the King are friendly enough that I can just visit him like this. He's everything you would imagine a hormonal teenager would be, not the ruler of a whole world.  
Although that being said, when the situation is serious enough, his unyielding determination is probably why he is a leader. Nobody can stop him when he's in his serious mood.

I look over to the house next door. The Fuyou residence.  
It's hard to believe what's changed in the past year. Rin moving out, Kaede almost losing it, Primula almost dying, and then finally, when Rin saved Asa's life by choosing to sacrifice his own, forcing her to use her magic to save him, and herself.  
Shaking my head sadly, I look up at the sky. Dark, black rain clouds have started to gather. During the rainy season, the weather forecast is relatively simple.  
It's either raining, or it's going to rain.

I pressed the buzzer on the door to the King's residence, wanting to get inside before the rain starts.  
After a few moments, I hear a voice through the intercom.

"Hello, this is Nerine Forbesii. Who is it?"

"It's Itsuki. I need to speak with your father, Nerine."

"Sure, I'll let you in straight away." The intercom buzzed, unlocking the gate. Stepping through, I see the front door opening, with Nerine's sapphire blue head poking through it.

"It's looking like it's gonna pour soon." Nerine commented on the weather. I nodded slowly.  
They walked through to Nerine's sitting room. I'd never actually been in Nerine's house before, so this was an interesting experience for me.

We found Forbesii, sitting playing chess with Eustoma. They seemed like they were in a good mood as usual.  
"And...check." Forbesii eliminated a bishop defending Eustoma's king, placing his queen right in front of it, leaving a gap of only a single square.  
"Will you stop doing that! This is the third game in a row!" Eustoma growled, taking a long drink from something that looked painfully alcoholic.

Nerine cleared her throat softly. "I hate to interrupt your game, but we have a guest father."  
Forbesii looked up immediately, and smiled as soon as he saw me. "Itsuki, it's been too long! Here, let me get you a drink."  
As usual, regrettably, I had to hastily decline.

"I'm sorry, I'm still a minor you know."

"Ah, come on! My Sia's been drinking ever since she finished with baby milk. You can handle a small shot!" I'm not too surprised really. But I'm not too sure how much of that was actually Sia's choice, or her fathers.

"Unfortunately, I still have to decline, as I'm bringing with me some bad news." I bow my head respectfully.

"Oh..." Both of the Kings put down their drinks and suddenly looked a whole lot more serious. "What's happened?"

Nerine also looked at me curiously. "What's happened Itsuki?"

I looked up at them all, and cleared my throat. "It's Mayumi. Apparently, her human side is fading away, and her demonic blood is beginning to take over her body. The doctors aren't sure of the outcome, and they say that, if it gets worse, Mayumi might not survive the transformation."

Nerine gasped. "Oh no... Mayumi..."

The two Kings suddenly glanced at each other.

"Shin... That sounds like..."

Eustoma nodded. "It looks like the time has come. Our last problem we have to face from the past.  
Ma-Bo, I think it's time we sorted this out."

Forbesii nodded. "I agree. And I think we should explain ourselves to Mayumi as well."

Both of the Kings nodded, and both looked at me.

"Itsuki. You already know that Mayumi is both human, and a demon, right?"

I nodded. I had a feeling the King of the Demons knew exactly what was going on.

Forbesii continued. "Her human side comes from her father. And her demonic side, from her mother." His expression had changed from serious, to sorrowful.  
"I'm not sure if Mayumi's father actually knows this, but Mayumi's mother was involved in Project Yggdrasil. The same project used to create Primula."

"Project Yggdrasil?"

Eustoma nodded. "An experiment designed to unravel the mysteries of life. And from the beginning, has been nothing but a failure."

"Mayumi's mother was a researcher, a demon from my world." Forbesii said. "However, she had been working on experiment number two. And when that experiment failed, she and all of the researchers working on that experiment were thought to have died.  
However, it turned out that she survived, along with only a few others from the original research team. They had been spirited away from the research facility, or to put it realistically, from its ruins."

"And because of her exposure to the effects of that failed experiment, her demonic blood and magic is unstable." Eustoma spoke up.  
"However, it seems to have affected Mayumi, more than it has her mother..."

"So what are we going to do about Mayumi?" My mind kept going to back to the girl, now lying in a hospital bed, with the doctors hopelessly trying to keep her magic under control.

"We're going to do what we had to do with Primula." Forbesii said sombrely. "We shall take Mayumi to the research lab, deep within the Demon world."

Nerine shuddered. "Not that place. We all almost died going to that place..."

"And its because of that, that we're going to need to bring a little bit on insurance." Both of the gods nodded and looked at me.

"Insurance?" I said hesitantly.

Eustoma nodded. "Yes. It'll be your job to keep Mayumi's magic under control. Otherwise..." He put an arm around my shoulder and grinned. "She might end up blowing us all to bits."

I really hope that he was joking.  
I've heard strange stories from Rin and the others about this research facility...

* * *

  
I wonder if Mayumi's going to be alright...  
Heheh xD  
Please R&R!!!  
xxx


	3. Reminiscent Memories

The wait has been long, but here's chapter 3. I had a lot to do recently, so fanfiction had to be put on hold. It's back though, so please review and enjoy.

* * *

"Desire"

Chapter 3: Reminiscent Memories

_~Mayumi Thyme~_

I had heard stories about this research laboratory. Rin and the girls had told of a frightening place, located deep within what looked like a large jungle. Somewhere located so far out of the way, due to the nature of the experiments conducted there. The place where Primula might have had her emotions reset, and become nothing more than an emotionless doll to control an overwhelming destructive magic locked up inside of her.

When you looked at it that way, my case didn't seem so bad. I was slowly transforming into a demon. Yes, there was a chance I could die, but only if the King of the Gods and Demons both screwed up. Which was unlikely, given that they both almost constantly drink whatever alcohol appears to be laying in front of them and have the mindset of emotional adolescents. Yes, everything was going to be fine.

I kept telling myself that as I was floated through the lab doors on something that looked a hell of a lot like a coffin. The only thing that seemed to be reassuring me was having two of the most powerful men on the planet walking left and right of me, as well as Itsuki taking the rear. Without Itsuki, this would've been a lot more intimidating.

"So the security is still as tight as ever?" Rin and the girls had also tagged along. Why, I have no idea. But it was all the more reassuring to a girl who was just about to enter a scary couple of hours in her life.

"Just the same as last time, Rin. Same rules too. Not like you listened to them much anyway last time..." The King of the Gods chuckled. "Although this time it's considerably much safer."

"What do you mean...considerably much safer?" Even though I still found it hard to talk, I lifted my head long enough to give Eustoma my best indignant look. He just grinned at me as we walked further and further into the strange building.  
It wasn't missed that Primula was clinging tightly to Rin the whole way. Something that Asa wasn't exactly ecstatic about, but given the circumstances, it was allowed. It was also noted that Nerine looked thoroughly miserable. She looked as though the place reminded her of somebody important to her had died here.

As we walked, or in my case, floated, they noticed a man with a long staff standing next to a strange shape in one of the walls. Everybody but Itsuki and I seemed to recognise this man, who walked closer to get a better look at me in my coffin.

"So sires, what have you brought for me today."

"A girl who's suffering from the effects of transforming into a demon." Forbesii spoke up. "She seems to be stable as of now, but we'd like to promote a fast recovery, as well as a prevention of any more problems."

"Ah, this is interesting." The strange man kept staring at me. "We haven't had case like this in a long while. It should just be a simple case to fix. Let's bring her inside the main chamber." Touching a hand upon one of the walls, the strange shape began to turn and open like a door. A huge chamber was set up, with what looked like a pod resting in a giant pillar.

"So you got a new one of those huh?" Rin pointed out. " Didn't Primula destroy the last one?" At his words, the small purple-haired girl looked more than a little sheepish. The man smiled.

"No, we fixed the last one with magic. It's the same pod, but it's been reinforced to an even further integrity. Now..." The man turned his eyes back on me. "We need to get her in there. Let's get her unclothed and unconscious as soon as possible."

"Waitwaitwait... what did you just say?" I had instantly picked up on the word 'unclothed'. "I am not getting into some strange pod in nothing but my skin!" I turned fearfully, looking at Itsuki for some backup. All I saw was some idiot in full pervert mode wearing one of the deepest blushes I have ever seen.

"Maybe its best if we swap the order? You know... unconscious first, then we deal with the clothes problem?" Forbesii laughed nervously. I sent him the most rage-filled look I could muster. It would be like being on display, with everyone watching. I could feel my face erupt into a wild blush.

"Hey, Primula had to go through this too. And besides, it's not like you got nothin' we ain't seen before." The King of the Gods roared with laughter as Sia said quietly. "Yeah, but back then, it was just Rin with us, and I'm pretty sure Primula wasn't all that upset with letting Rin see her naked. Heck, at one point she was lying in his arms in nothing but her birthday suit..." It was Primula's turn to go bright red as she clung even tighter to Rin's jacket.

"Hey Rin..." Asa was wearing an evil smile. One that meant pain was in store for her boyfriend. "You never mentioned anything about Rimu being naked in your arms." She walked closer to Rin, cracking her knuckles. The evil smile was starting to look just a little beyond demonic now. Needless to say, Rin was thoroughly crapping himself.

"She broke the pod and fell out, I ran over to catch her. That was all there was to it. I even gave her my jacket after to hide...everything..." Rin mumbled the honest truth as the conversation swung back round to me and my current crisis.

"That's great, good for you Rimu. But is there not any censoring or something we can do to the pod?" I wailed in desperation. "At least blindfold the guys or something. Please, I beg you."

"Do you mean guys as in the horny teenagers, or all of us men standing here?" Forbesii had a smile that was somehow keeping his eyes shut. "We need to see what's going to prevent any out breaking magical energy. And strangely enough, that's why the boys are here too. They seem to be able to stop disasters and create miracles."

I was hot from embarrassment, and I was beginning to feel a major tantrum coming on. But no, I was a grown up girl now and stopped throwing tantrums when I was... well, okay so I never really stopped, but this was an operation that was hopefully going to save my life. I'd best grit my teeth and shut the hell up.

"Fine...whatever... just hurry it up..." I said angrily through gritted teeth. "I want to be unconscious first or I'm going to do nothing but squeal throughout the entire process." The King of the Devils grinned and held up a hand that was surrounded by an aura of red magic.

"Your wish is my..." I didn't even get to hear the whole sentence. I was out before I'd even begun to change my mind.

_~Itsuki Midoriba~_

Mayumi had been in operation for over four hours now. I was slightly disappointed when we were escorted out of the room before they undressed her, but then I guess it was in her modesty. It would have been interesting to see how small those breasts actually were, but maybe some other day.

For the moment, I was pacing up and down a room where the circular bookcase was set in the centre of the room, with small benches surrounding it where the rest of the gang where sitting. They all wore awkward expressions, or were just silent, waiting to hear of any news of how things were going. I was beginning to feel the stress of impatience, and I was pretty sure I was momentarily close to losing all thread of sanity through worrying about the girl.

But my patience was soon rewarded. The King of the Demons came up the spiral staircase, and I quickly noted he was alone. But he came with a smile, and that quickly relieved me. But I had to be sure.

"Please, tell me she's going to be alright?"

The King waved a hand, beckoning the group to follow him. The rest of the group quickly burst into excited chatter as they were all led back inside the chamber. Sleeping in her bed was Mayumi, unfortunately with all the clothes on that she came in wearing. But she looked peacefully asleep.

"She will be fine. The demon transformation has been accelerated, and contained in such a way that it will no longer pose any threat to her body." The King of the Demons said cheerfully. And then his smile quickly faded away.

"However, there are several things that you must take into consideration now. She has become a demon, and whilst that will not change her personality, or who she is, it means she no longer belongs to the human race. Which brings me to my second point. She may feel insecure about losing her humanity, but at this point, we won't know that until she wakes up. Under any circumstances, do not make her feel uncomfortable or upset about losing her humanity, as this might cause a small disaster... which finally brings me onto my third point." He looked at each member present with a hard stare. "Mayumi's demon powers are unusual. Demon's are naturally stronger with some types of offensive magic, but Mayumi is different. She wields a power that may be on par with the energy that resides within Primula. It's an energy that has the potential to level a city, and the powers within the both of them continue to grow with each passing day. However, as of right now, both Primula and Mayumi are full of emotion that gives them control over that power. However, if either of them become enraged, or heartbroken, then that energy may spiral out of control and pose a serious threat."

It was Eustoma's turn to speak. "Being her friends, we know that you won't upset either of them, so we have entrusted Mayumi to you as we did Primula to Rin, long ago. Take care of them, and each other. And maybe someday we can use their power for miracles that can save the world."

As the two kings finished speaking, Mayumi began to slowly come around.

"Itsuki..."


End file.
